MIDDLEBURY — The National Museum of the Morgan Horse (NMMH), located in Middlebury, has a large collection of archives and three-dimensional artifacts relating to the history of the Morgan horse in Vermont, New England and nationally.
The collections are on long-term loan to Middlebury College, housed in the Davis Family Library’s Special Collections. The collection includes a large number of Morgan art, including prints, paintings, photographs and drawings. There is also a large collection of manuscripts relating to famous early Morgans and their owners.
The museum’s mission is to educate the public about the Morgan horse by collecting, preserving, and making available for study original works of art and historical materials, encouraging original research about the history of the Morgan horse. Although located in Middlebury, the NMMH’s audience is located throughout the United States and Canada. To reach everyone who cannot access the collections, NMMH would like to complete a project to catalog, photograph and publish most of the items online.
To pay for this new project, NMMH has started an online fundraising campaign on the Go Fund Me website, where project supporters can donate money for this cause. The goal is to raise $10,000 to cover the subscription cost for Collector Systems, a cloud-based collections management system that will create an online gallery of items from the collection for at least five years as well as purchase a new digital camera and scanner.
Museum Director Amy Mincher is excited about what lies ahead for NMMH.
“This project to catalog and digitize the collection will allow the museum staff and advisory council to have greater intellectual control over the collection,” said Mincher, who was hired this past spring. “When staff and volunteers catalog and photograph each piece in the collection, they will have a much better understanding of the scope of the collection, allowing for more thoughtfully researched and curated exhibits.”
The new project also will aid Morgan history researchers, many of whom are located across the country. Using the online gallery, researchers will be able to browse and search for specific names of horses, farms, people and other subject headings.
Those interested in donating may visit www.gofundme.com/morganmuseum or contact the museum by U.S. mail at NMMH, PO Box 101, Middlebury, VT 05753. The museum also is seeking volunteers who would be interested in working on the cataloging project. If interested, contact Mincher at (802) 388-1639 or email her at [email protected].
The National Museum of the Morgan Horse is located at 34 Main St. in Middlebury and is open Tuesday through Friday, 1-5 p.m., and Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.